9 March 2019 

International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March every year and is a focal point in the movement of women’s rights.  This year’s campaign theme of #BalanceforBetter is a call-to-action for driving gender balance across the world. 

Athletics prides itself on being a gender balanced sport and our officials play a major part in achieving this, where currently there are 59% male and 41% female officials in the UK.  In support of International Women’s Day 2019, throughout March, we will feature Officials across the UK to celebrate them and their commitment to athletics.  

Tatyanna Antoine 

What is your role as an official?
I am a field official.

How long have you been officiating?
1 year.

What inspired you to become an official?
I wanted to give something back to the sport that my daughter was involved in and getting so much from. 

What would you say to anyone wanting to get into officiating?
it’s a brilliant opportunity to see the sport from the other side. It also offers an appreciation of what goes into enabling the competitions to take place.  

What has been the highlight of your officiating career?
I really enjoy officiating with the younger age groups as they are full of enthusiasm. It is also very rewarding to see the athletes getting on and supporting each other especially when things sometimes go wrong. 

What can we do as a sport to achieve a #BetterBalance in officiating?
I’ve only officiated at club level for the lower age groups and there seems to be a good balance there. It does help that lunch is provided and other benefits such as money off subscriptions/ tickets to events. 

Find out more about International Women’s Day here. 

If you want to get involved in officiating, find out more information here.